This document outlines the motivations, architecture, and future plans for TiDB, a NewSQL database by PingCAP aimed at overcoming limitations of traditional RDBMS. TiDB provides transparent sharding, ACID transactions, high availability through the Raft consensus algorithm, and is MySQL compatible, while also incorporating advanced tools like Spark for analytical processing. The company is expanding with a new office in the Bay Area and aims for a smoother transition to GA with enhancements to its optimizer and scheduling mechanisms.